“Well planning” is the process of mapping the shape and trajectory of a path for a well prior to or during drilling, so as to reach or intersect one or more targets in an efficient manner while maximizing the likelihood of success. Drilling hardware and techniques allow for steering of the drill string to generally match the desired path, subject to limiting physical factors. Thus, the drilling operators are able to follow the well plan, which may range in shape from simple (e.g., a vertical well) to complex.
To plan a suitable path, a variety of modeling interfaces and engines are available. Generally, a target (e.g., a reservoir) is identified and one or more well paths are plotted that extend through discretized points positioned between the surface and the target. The modeling engines may begin with one or more templates or “bases” for the well plan that provide a geometric shape representing the path the wellbore takes, e.g., to reach the target. A single well plan may include one basis or several bases, which form the overall profile of the well plan.
A variety of factors may influence well planning. For example, it may be advantageous or required to maintain at least a certain distance between the subject well and features in the surrounding domain. Such features may include other wells (“offset wells”), geological features that may present difficulties in wellbore construction, etc. Other features may be targets for the well, and thus it may be advantageous or required to intersect these features with the well. Accordingly, well planning platforms may track the proximity of such features to the well, so as to avoid or ensure that the wellbore intersects the features. However, such proximity calculations may be computation-intensive, especially when editing (i.e., changing the shape/location of) the subject well in the well plan, which may inhibit rapidly displaying changes.